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Insets from left: Cortney Bartholomew, Brad Bartholomew (Wexford County Sheriff”s Office) and Rebecca Park (Missaukee County Sheriff’s Office via WPBN).
A Michigan woman, 22-year-old Rebecca Park, who was pregnant, has tragically lost her life in a brutal incident involving her own mother and stepfather, who have been arrested for her murder. The couple allegedly coerced Park into the forest, where they fatally attacked her and removed her unborn child, resulting in the deaths of both the mother and her baby.
Rebecca Park was approximately 38 weeks pregnant when she was reported missing on November 3 from her home in Northern Michigan. Her body was discovered on November 25 along a hiking trail in Boon Township, situated in the Manistee National Forest, around 35 miles south of Traverse City. However, the baby was not found with her.
On Monday, the authorities apprehended Park’s stepfather, 47-year-old Bradly Bartholomew, and her mother, 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew. They face charges of murder, torture, and assault on a pregnant individual leading to miscarriage or stillbirth. Previously, Park’s fiancé and sister had been detained on drug-related and tampering charges, but officials had remained tight-lipped about the specifics of Park and her child’s fate.
The grim details of Park’s death were disclosed during a bond hearing on Tuesday, where prosecutors outlined the chilling sequence of events.
Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey described the crime as “premeditated torture and murder,” according to a report from MLive. Carey stated, “These two individuals devised a plan and conducted research. Mr. Bartholomew brought Rebecca to their residence, compelled her into another vehicle, and led her into the woods where they stabbed her, forced her to lie down, and surgically removed her baby, resulting in the deaths of both Rebecca and the child.”
Carey further commented, “This act is, quite frankly, the embodiment of evil.”
Cops still have not recovered the baby’s body.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Rebecca Park was last seen alive getting into a vehicle by her mother outside of her home near Cadillac on Nov. 3 after she had just received $2,000 in an inheritance.
After cops found Park’s body, her fiance, Richard Falor, 43, was arrested on multiple drug charges. Then, during the early morning hours of Nov. 26, the missing woman’s sister, Kimberly Park, 21, was arrested on charges related to her sister’s disappearance.
Falor stands accused of two counts of delivering methamphetamine. Kimberly Park is charged with one count each of tampering with evidence in a criminal case, lying to a police officer during a violent crime investigation, and filing a false report of a felony.
During an arraignment, the sister’s bond was set at $750,000, while the fiance’s bond was set at $1 million. Both defendants were deemed threats to the community and flight risks, according to a courtroom report by Kalamazoo-based CBS affiliate WWMT.
But then, citing national media attention, 84th District Court Judge Corey Wiggins quickly shut down broadcast of the proceedings, according to Traverse City-based NBC affiliate WPBN and Cheboygan-based ABC affiliate WTOM, which collectively broadcast as “UpNorthLive.”
“Kimberly Park, ladies and gentlemen, people in the court, media, and those on livestream,” the judge said, according to a courtroom report by WJBK. “The court has an ethical duty to ensure that the defendants in these cases can have a fair trial. The court is well aware of the publicity this case has received across the country. In order to protect the defendants’ interests in this case, the court is going to take the court off of livestream.”
While the motive remains unclear, family members have been devastated by the pregnant woman’s death and want justice.
“I’m heartbroken, crushed,” Rebecca Park’s adoptive mother told WWMT after the cascade of recent events. “I have to remain strong. I have three children, little bitties that do not understand any of it. We have been, as a family, preparing for this outcome. Not quite as gruesome as this outcome. But preparing for this outcome.”